Ivory Coast on brink of exit after shock rout

Host nation Ivory Coast will have to rely on other results to avoid a shock Africa Cup of Nations group-stage exit after Equatorial Guinea thrashed the Elephants in a huge upset in Abidjan. Emilio Nsue’s double, Pablo Ganet’s 25-yard free-kick and Yannick Buyla’s late goal gave the National Thunder a famous win that sealed top […]

Host nation Ivory Coast will have to rely on other results to avoid a shock Africa Cup of Nations group-stage exit after Equatorial Guinea thrashed the Elephants in a huge upset in Abidjan.

Emilio Nsue’s double, Pablo Ganet’s 25-yard free-kick and Yannick Buyla’s late goal gave the National Thunder a famous win that sealed top spot in Group A.

Nsue is the leading AFCON 2023 goal scorer so far with five goals in three games for Equatorial Guinea including the tournament’s only hattrick. Nsue plays as a right back for CF InterCity in the Spanish third division.

The hosts must sweat on qualification after finishing third in Group A.

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The four best third-placed sides across the six groups progress to the last 16.

Ibrahim Sangare twice had equalisers ruled out for the Ivorians when they were only a goal behind, but the Elephants wasted a host of chances and were made to pay by their clinical opposition.

Some Ivorian players were in tears at the final whistle as they were loudly booed off by an angry partisan crowd at Alassane Ouattara Stadium after one of the biggest surprises in Afcon history.

Ivory Coast will have to wait for the rest of the groups to finish to see if their three points and a goal difference of -3 is enough to sneak through to the knockout stages.